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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25161418">Eddie and Richie On Ice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bats28/pseuds/bats28'>bats28</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, I haven't written anything in five years I'm so sorry, M/M, Mid-20's, No Beta Reader - Sorry, Short One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:48:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,504</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25161418</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bats28/pseuds/bats28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The most generic meet-cute at an ice-skating rink that no one asked for.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>46</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Eddie and Richie On Ice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This entire idea sucks” Eddie muttered under his breath as he grabbed the rental skates from the innocent attendant, who’s name-tag read “Lou”. “Lou” raised an eyebrow before handing Mike his own pair of skates, oblivious to Eddie’s complaints about this new activity he had been roped into.</p>
<p><br/>
“Who the fuck had the insane idea to attach razor blades to blocks and then somehow use your own fucking weight to move forward on ice?” his voice rising in volume with each word as Patty turned around to give him a large grin.</p>
<p><br/>
“Eddie, you’re going to be fine. Look, there are toddlers here getting the hang of it too!” she smiled and gestured at said toddlers, who didn’t look nearly as terrified as Eddie felt. As he caught a glimpse of a child about eight years old do some kind of fast spin around her friend, he only felt worse.</p>
<p><br/>
“We won’t let you fall, and the odds of any of you being chopped off by an ice skate are slim as long as you don’t fall in front of anyone,” came Mike’s reassurance. To Eddie, this meant nothing, as Mike had grown up near a lake in Maine, and therefore ice skating was not only something he did for fun, but a tradition he looked forward to each year. As for Patty, she was the type of person to not only try anything, but to also excel at it after three or four tries. In the trio’s three years of friendship, it had taken two passing Christmas holidays for both Mike and Patty to finally convince Eddie to give ice skating a chance this holiday season. And many, many talks about ice rink safety, cleanliness, and emergency procedures in the three weeks beforehand.</p>
<p><br/>
Mike guided them to an empty bench where the three could sit down and lace their shoes in peace, where Eddie’s mind continued jumping ahead to Plan #3 should his fingers get trapped under someone else’s ice skate. He was mentally about to shove his fingers into his coat to stop the bleeding when he heard a very loud, and very obnoxious laugh coming from his right. He automatically turned his head to find the source of the laugh and saw a very tall, broad-shouldered man surrounded by what he assumed were his friends, as they were all laughing (at a more appropriate volume) with him. He had thick, wavy dark hair trying to escape from under a lime green beanie that clashed horribly with his neon purple jacket that looked like it came from a 90’s catalogue. And then the man laughed again at a volume so loud, Eddie almost flinched before setting his mouth in a grim line. Before he could look away, however, the man turned to look at Eddie and their eyes met for what felt like minutes. Eddie’s frozen stare suddenly became an immediate scowl as the stranger grinned at Eddie and winked once, turning back to talk a woman with red hair leaning against him. Eddie made himself look away before Mike or Patty could ask him why he was locked in a staring contest with another adult at a skating rink, and returned to tying the laces up his shoes as tightly as possible.</p>
<p>“Figures the crowds here would be fucking loud” he grumbled.</p>
<p><br/>
“At least you’re with us?” Mike offered, and Eddie couldn’t help but give him a genuine half-smile.</p>
<p><br/>
Eddie looked away before answering “Well if I was going to die in front of anyone, it could at least be my emergency contact”.</p>
<p><br/>
“Good thing your divorce went through BEFORE Halloween”, Patty smiled too, before offering Eddie a hand up once he finished tying the last lace.</p>
<p><br/>
“And my gay identity crisis before I turned 30” Eddie answered, taking her outstretched hand and standing up. Though getting married at the age of 24, followed by an understandably messy divorce, had all occurred just before his 27th birthday, he would always be grateful for the two best friends he met in graduate school.</p>
<p><br/>
As balancing took a moment longer than Eddie was proud to admit, Patty kept her grip on his hand firm as he got used to the pressure the shoes had on his ankles. Trying to push away thoughts of cut-off circulation and broken ankles, he nodded at Patty, who smiled at him before letting go of his hand to start walking towards the left entrance of the outdoor rink. He trailed behind her carefully, both hands grabbing the edge of the rink while Mike followed with a content smile on his face.</p>
<p><br/>
As he moved through the crowds of small children, their parents, and teenagers on group dates, he felt his chest tighten watching even those who were clinging to the ramp within the rink at least able to stand upright. The resounding “thump” he could hear across the rink whenever someone did fall did nothing to ease his nerves either.</p>
<p><br/>
“Remember how I taught you how to balance?” Mike asked behind him as they got to the entrance.</p>
<p>“Chest up and keep my feet shoulder-length apart,” Eddie replied as he turned to look at him.</p>
<p><br/>
“Same thing I told your mom,” came a loud voice behind Mike, before the man in the purple jacket walked past Mike and beamed at Eddie.</p>
<p><br/>
“Beep beep, Richie,” a smaller man with curly hair said flatly, rolling his eyes before turning to look at Eddie and Mike as they continued towards the front, the corners of his mouth turned down naturally. They were followed by the beautiful red-haired woman who had been leaning on Richie earlier, holding hands with a very handsome brown-haired man who smiled at Eddie kindly as she suddenly called out “Richie, quit flirting and get inside the rink already, we only get an hour!” Eddie immediately turned to look back at Richie, where he saw the back of his ears turn a shade of pink before he lifted his left hand to flip off the woman behind him, walking considerably faster towards the entrance. Before Eddie could process anything that had just happened, one more person trailed behind the couple in front of him, offering Eddie a “Sorry” before making his way to catch up to his friends, looking as though it was also his first time in ice skates.</p>
<p><br/>
“What the fuck was that?” Eddie asked Mike, who gave him a knowing smirk that Patty also caught.</p>
<p><br/>
“Looks like someone is interested in you,” she smiled, continuing to walk forward as Eddie huffed and opened his mouth to answer her. Before he could, he was hit with a rush of cold air as a blur of purple and white flew past him on the other side of the bar on the ice, almost scaring him backwards.</p>
<p><br/>
“Was that necessary?!” Eddie heard himself suddenly shout at Richie, who suddenly and expertly turned around skating backwards while giving him the biggest shit-eating grin Eddie had ever seen. Eddie felt the scowl deepen on his face as he felt compelled to stick his tongue out at Richie, which he hadn’t done at anyone since he was at least nine years old.</p>
<p><br/>
“Some flirt! I wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole” he answered Patty. She gave him a wider smile before gesturing to keep going, eventually making it to the entrance. She went inside first and moved gracefully to her right towards the bar, waiting for Eddie to join her. Eddie looked down and swallowed a little, before he realized that if he hesitated any longer the people behind him would surely start noticing.</p>
<p><br/>
“Mike if I fall and crack my head right now, you can have my laptop and my car,” Eddie said quickly. He heard Mike cough a laugh, and a firm hand on his shoulder letting him know he’d be just fine with Patty in front of him and Mike behind him. Eddie took in a deep breath, grabbed the rail to his right tighter, and placed his right foot on the ice, immediately swinging to his right to hold onto the edge with both arms and moving out of the way for Mike to climb in next. Eddie’s frown deepened as he watched Mike almost float onto the ice and move next to Patty to her right, both watching Eddie expectantly.</p>
<p><br/>
“How the fuck do you just DO that?” he sighed, hands gripping the rail tighter as he attempted to move his right foot forward first.</p>
<p><br/>
“You’ll get the hang of it, I promise,” Mike encouraged, standing off to the side away from the circle of people moving clockwise around the rink, tucking his gloved hands into his navy coat pockets.</p>
<p><br/>
“You know you’ll probably fall at least five times today, Eddie” Patty added, tucking a strand of curly black hair under her red cap.</p>
<p><br/>
“That’s very reassuring, really, I was definitely planning on breaking something today,” he answered, trying to build up the courage to let go of railing and move FORWARD, dammit.</p>
<p><br/>
“If you do fall, I’d be happy to catch you, cutie.” Again, Eddie felt a rush of cold air as Richie again flew past him, this time adding another wink as he skated by.</p>
<p><br/>
“For fuck’s sake don’t you have anything better to do than harass strangers!” Eddie shouted back, really wishing he had the will to chase him down and do… something. He would figure that part out if he could learn to move forward without fearing for his life.</p>
<p><br/>
“Only the cute ones!” Richie answered back before skating back to his own group of friends. Eddie grimaced as he turned to look back at Patty and Mike, who were both holding in laughter. Rather than address their amusement, Eddie chose to cut straight to the chase for why they were at the rink in the first place.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“You can go ahead if you want, I’ll just be holding onto the bar the entire time.” Eddie couldn’t fathom how long it would take to get himself to eventually let go of the rail, and he definitely did not want to slow his friends down.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Okay, but make sure you shout at medium volume if you fall so we can come back.” Patty patted his arm in reassurance as she turned to Mike to increase their pace towards the other end of the rink. Mike nodded at Eddie, and with a final wave, they were off and Eddie was alone with his two feet moving as carefully across the ice as he dared.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
Ten minutes and two false alarm falls later, he had waved at his friends as they made their way past him three times, and had managed to flip off Richie twice, to Eddie’s great annoyance. The first had been for Richie shouting “cute, cute, cute!” at him when he almost lost his grip on the rail. The second had been for the loudest cheer of “You can do it Eds!” from the other side of the rink across the Christmas tree, and even though Eddie couldn’t see it, he was shocked at how quickly he recognized the stranger’s voice.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Mother fucker is going to make me fall on purpose, I know it,” Eddie grumbled to himself quietly, before letting go of the rail with both hands in a final attempt to skate away from the edge. He felt himself move forward, right foot, left foot, right foot again, and with each step his confidence increased the farther he went without falling. He was about to give out a small self-congratulatory “finally” when suddenly –<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!”<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
Eddie turned to the sound of the noise and his hear sunk when he saw Richie barreling towards him, arms outstretched as he tried to gain his balance. If Eddie didn’t move in the next five seconds he would actually be pressed against the –<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Psych!” Richie shouted as he suddenly braked, a shower of ice hitting Eddie from the waist down. Eddie felt his knees almost give out from under him as he tried to slow down his heartbeat, before it quickly sped up again watching Richie laugh so hard he had doubled over, hair falling into his glasses.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“You MOTHER FUCKER YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!” Eddie yelled, attracting the eyes of a few children and parents. In a rush of adrenaline, Eddie rushed towards Richie, whose eyes went wide as he tried to skate backwards away from the suddenly feral doe-eyed man. Eddie was a good 6 feet into his chase when he suddenly realized he definitely did not know how to slow down, let alone brake. He felt the world slow down as their eyes connected with the mutual understanding that Eddie was definitely about to actually crash into him, and hard. With a “Dude slow down!” from Richie and a “MOVE OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY” from Eddie, Richie took the brunt of the hit the hardest, landing on his back with his arms outstretched as they both toppled over. Eddie landed almost painlessly on top of him, arms spread out around him too, his head buried into Richie’s left shoulder. Quickly, Eddie moved his head up to look at Richie, who’s eyes were now wide with fright at this sudden weight above him. Their eyes locked for what felt like hours, a slow blush creeping onto both of their faces as they tried to wrap their heads around what had just happened. Finally, a loud shout broke them from their reverie as Eddie heard Patty shout his name.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Eddie Jesus fucking Christ are you okay?!” she shouted, her voice getting closer as she neared with Mike behind her. On the other side of the two, Eddie heard various cries of “Richie what the fuck?” and “We told you to stop fucking with him!”. Eddie quickly rolled over off of the taller man, sitting up as Patty and Mike reached him. Richie was moving his hands to also sit up when Eddie suddenly spoke.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Wait don’t get up, you could have a concussion, did you hit your head?” he asked, not knowing where his concern was coming from for the very reason he had just fallen. Richie looked over at him with eyes wide for a second before relaxing his face into the same beaming smile he had given him earlier.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“I appreciate your concern, Eds, but l was smart enough to keep my head raise, my back took most of the fall, but if it means you’ll play doctor I wouldn’t say no to mouth to mouth resuscitation.” Eddie’s concern dissipated to frustration, trying to move his body away from Richie.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Yeah he’s definitely fine if he’s still flirting with his meet-cute,” the man who had rolled his eyes earlier sighed as the taller man in the denim jacket reached down to hoist Richie up to his feet. Eddie looked over to Patty and Mike, who both wordlessly offered a hand for Eddie to take to also get himself standing up. The next thing anyone knew, an attendant with curly brown hair and a bored expression that rivaled Richie’s friend approached them.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Look I really don’t give a shit but my supervisor said you all have to leave. She said she didn’t mind the cursing with a bunch of children around but the way you tackled him is a definitely a liability, so… y’all need to leave right now,” she sighed, and Eddie was the first to react.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“We didn’t even get to finish the full hour! And it was this fucker’s fault for starting this shit.”<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“I was only teasing you! I didn’t think you’d tackle me like you were trying out for the NFL.”<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“I did not fucking tackle you, you didn’t move away in time even though you keep showing off like you’re in the fucking ice skating Olympics –“<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“How the fuck was I going to move in time when I had a spitball firing at me at 60 miles per hour –“<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Okay! New plan, you and you can leave the rink, and the rest of you can stay, because no one else besides you two have broken nearly every rule,” the attendant looking pointedly at Eddie and Richie, who had shut up quickly. Before either of them could respond, the rest of their friends all nodded their heads immediately and moved one step backwards.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Perfect, you two know where the exit is, the rest of you enjoy the 30 or so minutes you have left.” She turned around without another look, and moved back towards the original entrance, Richie and Eddie looking everywhere but each other.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“See you in thirty minutes, good luck, Richie!” the red-haired woman smiled, taking her boyfriend’s hand as they fell back into the clockwise rotation of the rink. Richie’s curly-haired friend and the other man wearing flannel looked from Eddie to Richie for a moment, before both turned to look at Patty and Mike. Before anyone could move, Eddie spoke up first.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“You guys, I’m so sorry –“ Eddie started before Patty cut him off with a grin.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Don’t even worry about it! Mike and I are going to get to know…”<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Stan and Bill,” the friend wearing flannel spoke, looking wistfully at Mike, who was noticeably not looking back at him.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Stan and Bill,” she continued. “We’re going to get to know Stan and Bill while you two sit in time out and think about what you did,” and before anyone could stop her, she tugged Mike’s arm and nodded for Stan and Bill to follow her. They looked at each other, shrugged, and moved forward with them, leaving Eddie and Richie standing in the middle of the rink.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Don’t say anything,” Eddie cut Richie off before he could so much as open his mouth. Instead, Richie pretended to zip his lips, then made a big show of throwing the “key” across the rink, whistling as it flew through the air and ending his bit with a “clink” sound as the it “landed”. Fighting the urge to throw his face into his hands, Eddie willed his feet to move towards the exit, and to no one’s surprise but his own, almost lost his balance as his left foot almost flew out from under him. Before he knew it, he felt a large hand grip his arm firmly, registering that the person responsible for getting him kicked out 30 minutes into his first ice skating experience was now holding him up so he wouldn’t fall.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Need a little help there, Eds?” Richie smiled, his hand loosening his grip once Eddie found his balance.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Not my – yeah fine, just help me get to the exit before I take us down again,” Eddie grimaced, blaming his suddenly warm cheeks on the cool air in the rink.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Usually I prefer to be wined and dined before I end up in that kind of a position,” Richie said as he smirked at Eddie, moving forward at a careful pace. And as much as Eddie wanted to yank his arm back in embarrassment, he definitely did not yet have the skill to move across the ice on his own, let alone without hanging on to something (or in this case, someone).<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“I want you to know that as soon as we are back on solid ground, I will throw both my skates at your head.” Even at Eddie’s threat, Richie continued smiling as they reached the halfway point to the entrance, onlookers moving around them with curious eyes.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“If it means I get to keep talking to you, I’ll take it.” At that, Eddie rolled his eyes, and stayed leaning on Richie as they finally reached the entrance of the rink, feeling his chest let go of the air he hadn’t been realizing he had been holding in. As the two stepped off the ice onto the thick material of the floor at the entrance, Eddie made to move towards a bench to finally remove the death traps on his feet when he felt a small tug on his jacket. Turning around, he was met with Richie’s blue eyes looking at him almost bashfully.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“Look, I know I was giving you a lot of shit before, but our friends have about 20 minutes before they finish. If I buy you an apology coffee, do you want to wait for them together?” Eddie watched him carefully, unsure if this was some kind of joke for a stranger who had spent the better part of an hour bringing him to the edge of insanity, only to apologize with a cup of coffee and company. Company that he actually wouldn’t mind.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/>
“I take it black, no cream or sugar,” Eddie snapped, before wobbling away to the nearest bench. He missed Richie’s triumphant grin as he completely forgot to remove his skates, instead heading towards the small café a few feet away from the ice rink to buy an expensive coffee. And if Eddie was smiling as he turned around to sit, well, that was his business too.</p>
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